Beverage preparation machines are well known in the food industry and consumer goods area. Such machines allow a consumer to prepare at home a given type of beverage, for instance a coffee-based beverage, e.g. an espresso or a brew-like coffee cup.
Today, most beverage preparation machines for in-home beverage preparation comprise a system made of a machine which can accommodate portioned ingredients for the preparation of the beverage. Such portions can be soft pods or pads, or sachets, but more and more systems use semi-rigid or rigid portions such as rigid pods or capsules. In the following, it will be considered that the beverage machine is a beverage preparation machine working with a rigid or semi-rigid capsule.
The machine preferably comprises a receptacle for accommodating said capsule and a fluid injection system for injecting a fluid, preferably water, under pressure into said capsule. Water injected under pressure in the capsule, for the preparation of a coffee beverage, is preferably hot, that is to say at a temperature above 70° C. However, in some particular instances, it might also be at ambient temperature, or even at a chilled temperature. The pressure inside the capsule chamber during extraction and/or dissolution of the capsule contents is typically about 1 to about 8 bar for dissolution products and about 2 to about 12 bar for extraction of roast and ground coffee. The present invention could also encompass the so-called “brewing” process of beverage preparation—particularly for tea and coffee. Brewing involves a time of infusion of the ingredient by a fluid (e.g. hot water), whereas the extraction or dissolution preparation process allows a consumer to prepare a beverage, for instance coffee, within a few seconds.
Generally, in the following specification, the term “brewing” of an ingredient by a fluid, is meant to encompass extraction of a powdered edible material such as for instance roast and ground powdered coffee, or dissolution of edible soluble material such as for instance soluble tea or coffee, milk, cocoa mixes, or infusion of an edible material with an infusion fluid under very low relative pressure, or atmospheric pressure, for a longer time than that required for extraction or dissolution, for instance infusion of tea leaves by hot water.
The principle of extracting and/or dissolving the contents of a closed capsule under pressure is known and consists typically of confining the capsule in a receptacle of a machine, injecting a quantity of pressurized water into the capsule, generally after piercing a face of the capsule with a piercing injection element such as a fluid injection needle mounted on the machine, so as to create a pressurized environment inside the capsule either to extract the substance or dissolve it, and then release the extracted substance or the dissolved substance through the capsule. Capsules allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in applicant's European patent no EP 1 472 156 B1, and in EP 1 784 344 B1.
Machines allowing the application of this principle have already been described for example in patents CH 605 293 and EP 242 556. According to these documents, the machine comprises a receptacle for the capsule and a perforation and injection element made in the form of a hollow needle comprising in its distal region one or more liquid injection orifices. The needle has a dual function in that it opens the top portion of the capsule on the one hand, and that it forms the water inlet channel into the capsule on the other hand.
The machine further comprises a fluid tank—in most cases this fluid is water—for storing the fluid that is used to dissolve and/or infuse and/or extract under pressure the ingredient(s) contained in the capsule. The machine comprises a heating unit such as a boiler or a heat exchanger, which is able to warm up the water used therein to working temperatures (classically temperatures up to 80-90° C.). Finally, the machine comprises a pump element for circulating the water from the tank to the capsule, optionally though the heating unit. The way the water circulates within the machine is e.g. selected via a selecting valve means, such as for instance a peristaltic valve of the type described in applicant's European patent application EP 2162653 A1.
When the beverage to be prepared is coffee, one interesting way to prepare the coffee is to provide the consumer with a capsule containing roast and ground coffee powder, which is to be extracted with hot water injected therein.
Capsules have been developed for such an application, which are described and claimed in applicant's European patent EP 1 784 344 B2, or in European patent application EP 2 062 831.
In short, such capsules typically comprise:                a hollow body and an injection wall which is impermeable to liquids and to air and which is attached to the body and adapted to be punctured by e.g. an injection needle of the machine,        a chamber containing a bed of roast and ground coffee to be extracted or a soluble beverage precursor ingredient, e.g. a milk based powder or soluble powdered tea,        an aluminium membrane disposed at the bottom end of the capsule, that hermetically closes the capsule, for retaining the internal pressure in the chamber, this bottom membrane being associated with piercing means for piercing dispensing holes in the aluminium membrane when the internal pressure inside the chamber reaches a certain pre-determined value,        optionally, means configured to break the jet of fluid so as to reduce the speed of the jet of fluid injected into the capsule and distribute the fluid across the bed of substance at a reduced speed. It is often important for the user to know when the water level in the machine tank is too low to prepare a full beverage.        
In many instances, the capsules for use in beverage preparation machines are closed capsules as described above. Such closed capsules are interesting because they protect the ingredient contained therein from ambient gas and moisture and allow long conservation time. Typically, such closed capsules are made from gas and/or moisture impermeable material and feature a rigid or semi-rigid body having a one of its walls—for instance the top wall—made from a membrane which is to be pierced by the fluid injection needle of the beverage preparation machine. When liquid is injected in the capsule compartment, a pressure is built up, which serves as an extraction means for extracting ingredients contained inside the capsule through a dispensing wall of the capsule—typically the bottom wall—.
However, beyond their clear benefits for the consumer as described above, closed capsules may also raise certain issues.
It was found that in some—generally exceptional—cases, when the machine starts injecting fluid (e.g. water) under pressure within the capsule, the opening of the membrane located at the dispensing side of the capsule does not occur properly when fluid pressure inside the capsule builds-up. More precisely, it was found that in such cases, the capsule dispensing side opens, and in some cases, a few drops of product may start to flow through the dispensing side of the capsule. However, due to product characteristics, in particular, due to some aggregates of undissolved ingredient, or due to big particles, the holes in the dispensing side of the capsule are almost immediately clogged in such a way that the end product cannot flow properly therethrough towards a consumer cup, as it should normally be the case.
As a first result, the beverage is not dispensed to the consumer, who has to withdraw the blocked capsule from the machine, and replace it with a new one. This withdrawal operation may however be messy, because the fluid inside the capsule is under pressure, and when the consumer opens the machine, the injection needle is removed from the top wall (e.g. top membrane) of the capsule, and fluid under pressure flows, or sometimes even sprays, out of the capsule, which is of course undesirable.
More than that, in some instances, the beverage preparation machine comprises a security, which prevents opening of its capsule compartment until in-capsule pressure has not decreased to a predetermined value. In case of capsule blockage, the machine cannot be re-opened, unless the capsule is pierced using a piercing tool, for instance by accessing the dispensing pierceable membrane from below said capsule, which is also undesirable and not user-friendly.
Although such cases of blocked capsules are exceptional, it is highly desirable to provide a solution which prevents capsule blockage. This is the primary objective of the present invention.